MALIBU, Calif. - The No. 19 Pepperdine baseball team grabbed an early lead over San Francisco and then busted the game open with an eight-run fourth en-route to a 13-2 conference victory over the Dons.

The Waves posted 15 hits in the game and got run production from nine of the 16 players they sent to the plate today.

"We got off to a great start and were just able to get some good, quality at-bats from the very beginning of the game," said head coach Steve Rodriguez. "We did a really good job with guys in scoring position today. When we got guys to second and third and were able to bring them in consistently."

The Waves posted three runs in the first, thanks to three RBI singles. Pepperdine sent eight batters to the plate and had five reach base safely in the opening frame, but that was just a precursor to what the Waves did in the fourth.

After USF answered with two runs in the second, the Pepperdine bats put on an offensive show, scoring eight runs on eight hits in the fourth. All eight hits were singles as both Brandon Caruso (Pasadena, Calif./Loyola HS) and Jack Ross (Gilroy, Calif./Palma HS) posted two hits in the inning. Ross and Aaron Brown (Chatsworth, Calif./Chatsworth HS) each had two-RBI singles to account for four of the runs. The Waves batted around in the inning, getting 12 at-bats to take a commanding lead 11-2.

"The guys hitting at the bottom of our batting order have been some great rally starters for us," said Rodriguez. "You have guys like (Manny) Jefferson and Caruso, and some of the other guys who have had a chance to get in there, come in and do a great job of putting together good quality at-bats for us."

The Waves' starting seven, eight and nine hitters were a combined 6-for-11 at the plate, with six RBI and four runs scored on the day. Caruso led the fourth inning rally off with a single and would finish the day 3-for-4 at the plate, with two RBI and two runs.

From there the Pepperdine hurlers did the rest of the work, holding USF scoreless the rest of the way. Corey Miller (Laguna Niguel, Calif./JSerra Catholic HS) got the start and tossed 6.0 innings, giving up six hits and two runs to move to 7-2 on the year. Evan Dunn (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman HS) took over for Miller to start the seventh and tossed two scoreless innings before giving way to Mat Snider (Los Altos, Calif./Los Altos HS) in the ninth. Dunn got a strikeout to leave the bases loaded in the seventh and Snider worked a perfect 1-2-3 ninth, striking out two batters to end the game.

Brown finished the day 3-for-5, with three RBI and one run scored, running his team-leading RBI total to 34 on the season. Ross had a two-hit day, driving in a pair of runs and scoring one more. Five Waves had multi-hit games.

Making his first start of the season, Houston Hibberd took the loss to fall to 4-2. Brendan Hendriks was the only Don to post multiple hits, going 2-for-4 at the plate.

The win improves Pepperdine's record to 29-8, 13-3 WCC and drops USF to 17-19, 6-10 WCC. The two teams resume play tomorrow at 3 p.m. as the WCC's "Friday Night Baseball" game of the week. The series concludes Saturday at 1 p.m.